Judges overseeing the main Imbaba constituency polling station in Giza managed to reach a judge responsible for a secondary polling station after the ballot box in his custody went missing for over nine hours.

The judge, who was overseeing the voting process at polling station 8 in Imbaba, felt ill late Monday night and asked his driver to take him home, taking the ballot box along to protect it against tampering.

The ballot box was finally returned on Tuesday morning to the main polling station for vote counting.

Meanwhile, 225 ballot boxes from secondary polling stations had arrived by Tuesday morning for vote counting at the main station. However, the mysterious absence of the station 8 box resulted in a brawl between candidates, their representatives and overseers.

The first phase of voting in Egypt's parliamentary elections took place on Sunday and Monday and counting has been ongoing overnight.

The High Electoral Committee will announce the official results on Thursday.

Run-offs will take place on 27 and 28 October, and the results of voting in the 14-governorate first phase will be announced on 29 October.